EXCLUSIVE: Time the biggest test for Jonny Wilkinson's hopes of making the Lions tour

Jonny Wilkinson’s grim six month fight to make the Lions tour has been hit by renewed concern over the state of his left knee.

England sent a medical team to Tyneside yesterday to carry out their own examinationamid fears in Newcastle of a further delay to their fly-half’s Premiership comeback.

He is unlikely to make the bench for the home match against Leicester on Friday night,almost six months to the day since dislocating his left knee at Gloucester.

Brought to his knees: Wilkinson suffers a dislocation against Gloucester in September

The ‘minor setback’ which forced Newcastle to withdraw him from their substitutes atBath last weekend is now in danger of turning into a major one for both the player and the Lions, despite the delayed announcement of their 35-man squad.

Players have until April 12 to book their seats on May’s flight to Johannesburg.

Wilkinson is rapidly running out of games. After this weekend, Newcastle have only four matches left, five if they win their European Challenge Cup quarter-final at Saracens on the Lions deadline day.

The chosen few will be named nine days later at the end of an exhaustive selection process headed by Ian McGeechan.

A host of issues have still to be resolved, not least the choice of the third stand-offbehind Stephen Jones and Ronan O’Gara, which is where 29-year-old Wilkinson mayenter the equation, however belatedly.

As the Six Nations passed Danny Cipriani by completely, and James Hook to a lesser extent, the third fly half position remains vacant.

While the improving Toby Flood has to be in the reckoning, McGeechan will be carefulto avoid the mistake of gambling on any player’s fitness.

Wilkinson picked up an injury during the second Test between New Zealand and the Lions four years ago

Graham Henry did that in Australia eight years ago in respect of Lawrence Dallaglio,whose knee duly gave way.

And Sir Clive Woodward did so by calling on Wilkinson at the 11th hour for the All Black series in 2005.

Wilkinson’s importance was such that Woodward left a position open for him despitethe fact that the World Cup winning fly-half had not played a full match during the previous four months.

He duly went as the 45th man, only to be injured during the second Test.

This time, with the regular Premiership season ending earlier to accommodate the Lions, Wilkinson is in danger of having less opportunity to beat the odds, with Newcastle’s last match on April 25.

In the new year, when the RFU sent him to the clinic in Vermont run by the world-renowned reconstructor of knees, Bill Knowles, Wilkinson hoped to be back by ‘late February’. Now late March might prove over-optimistic.

There is concern over what one source described as ‘a bad injury, but we had hoped Jonny would be further on than he appears to be’.

He has not done any training since his knee ‘flared up’ last week after intensifying his regime in preparation for his re-introduction.

Ian McGeechan still has to decide over a third fly half to take on the Lions tour to South Africa

Lions manager Gerald Davies said: ‘We are not going to take anyone who is not fit. There are a lot of positions where there are up to four contenders. Now it’s a question of who do we really need to have a good look at again. We will be doing that right up until the weekend of the European quarter-finals.’

McGeechan, whose network of selection advisers includes the head coaches of the four home countries, was in Cork on Tuesday for talks with Ireland’s Declan Kidney.

The choice of which Irishman to lead the Lions - Brian O’Driscoll or Paul O’Connell - will have topped the agenda.

Kidney has won the biggest prizes in European rugby with both - the Grand Slam withO’Driscoll, the Heineken Cup with O’Connell.

When he left Munster at the end of last season following Eddie O’Sullivan’s resignation as Ireland coach, Kidney was astute enough to stick with O’Driscoll rather than appoint O’Connell and expose himself to accusations of a bias towards his native province.

The Lions have dismissed any concern at being affected by the fall-out over the verbal ruck between Warren Gatland and O’Connell over the Wales coach, who doubles up as McGeechan’s right-hand man, claiming the Welsh players ‘disliked’ the Irish more than anyone else.

O’Connell compared Gatland to Jose Mourinho and told him to keep his ‘ego in check’.

‘It’s water under the bridge,’ Davies said. ‘Not an issue.’

Share or comment on this article:

Time the biggest test for Jonny Wilkinson's hopes of making Lions tour